On Sunday, JTH and I attended a worship service at Bearden United Methodist Church to support ALK, who was playing handbells. This was the second time we have done so as we also attended the October 19th service at the church. Amazingly, we were early for the event. Like good Baptists, we sat on the back row. I convinced ALK to wear her gloves throughout the service but could not get her to mime.
In this, their Christmas performance, the group played three songs: “Angels We Have Heard on High”, “Pat-A-Pan”, and “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day”. As always, director Les Beaver and his crew put on a good show. Unfortunately the group’s awesome name, The Rings of the Lord, was not listed in the bulletin.
As when we last visited, I got to see my first and third grade teachers. On this day, we were surrounded by Wandas as a woman with the name sat beside us and in front of us. The latter was former County Commissioner Wanda Moody.
As an aside, is it customary in small churches that when prayer requests are asked for, that it disseminates into a group of people telling their birthdays? This seems to happen a lot in the churches I visit.
Afterwards, we were pressed for time as ALK had to babysit so we ate at a nearby Subway, theoretically to save time. A poor girl named Kayla was the only employee working and she was overwhelmed. We could have eaten just about anywhere equally fast. Kayla’s positive attitude amidst this pressure was remarkable. The time at Subway did give us time to engage in banter with our church friend EAT who was in line in front if us.
Afterwards, JTH and I frequented McKay’s. We were in the store forever (literally hours), amazingly not because of me. We ran into RAW and MPW who were killing time before a basketball game at church. We also ran into an old college friend named Matt Nichols. I had Matt share his testimony with the boys. Until 1998, he was one of the area’s leading drug dealers. He showed them a photo of himself with countless bills and an automatic weapon. God came into his life and he has made a complete turn around. Yes, I had a guy share his testimony on the spot. Matt did not seem to mind.
Later in the day, JTH and I visited our friend JJG, whom I used to babysit for years ago. We dropped off his and his sister’s Christmas gifts though she was away babysitting. Where were all of these parents going? JJG is well and enjoying college life and his involvement with Sigma Chi. He is enjoying it so much that it was a small miracle that we caught him on a rare visit home.
Most importantly, en route, since I was giving my first gift of the season, I put Hilary Duff’s Christmas album “Santa Claus Lane” into the CD player. It is not officially Christmas until I am listening to her rendition of “Last Christmas” on repeat. I must note that the entire CD is perhaps the worst Christmas album ever produced but it is worth listening to just to hear her whisper “Merry Christmas” on that track.
Finally, were Bart to participate in a minstrel show, would she be “Black Bart”?
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